More about August/John's family up to 1903

Hi again dear descendants,

Göran's son #2 - August Göranson, later calling himself John Goranson (the Goranson's)

Here my secretary would have liked to publish a photo of the siblings Betty, Miriam and Edna, daughters of August/John and Kristina Goranson. Edna tells us in her story Transplanted that their picture was taken, her remembering sitting on a chair, having a seat affair on top of the back rest where she was sitting way up high which was intriguing to her. Anyone who has a copy???

The next move for the family of John/August Goranson was "down the road half a mile north to Whitted's farm - a lovely large square house painted yellow, with white trimmings, the gables, had fancy wood trellis trim's in their peaks, two good sized barns, a good granary with an upstairs in it and an outside stairway leading up, a windmill with large circular wooden tank in the corner of the pasture right by the barn. The farm belonged to a widower who reserved one room upstairs for himself" (E. Goranson). Edna wonderded in later years how he could put up with all of the kids, as they must have been a noisy racketing bunch at times as she expresses it. She also remembers being three years old when they moved into this house, being sat on the top of a piled heap of bedding on the floor to be out of the way while everybody else carried in the furniture.

By now their circumstances were much improved, the three boys were now full grown and working out. Also the girls took jobs of housework. Edna writes "But because we were such a large family we always lived as cheaply as possible, to economize was a daily practice at our house and there never were any large sums left over". Therefore John/August was never able to build on the land he purchased 1st Dec 1903. He had always in mind to buy land and have a home of his own. He bought a quarter east of Whitted's, NE 1/4 of section 13, Township 128 - Range 47 Traverse county, on crop payments (E. Goranson).

Right to Left, back row: Teofil, Charlie, Willie, Gunnar, Bettie and Miriam.

Right to Left, front row: Albin, father John/August, Edgar, Edna, mother Kristina and David.

The oldest son, Gunnar was buying and trading horses and bringing home the loot from his trade-ins. Teofil's interests were guns and Kodaks, always taking pictures to develop and print them himself, baseball was his joy, also hunting. All the young boys were good ball players. Willie and Edgar, became camera fans. Odd musical instruments appeared, first the old accordions, the old zither, the mouth organs which were "cajoled into really beautiful music in many different mouth's. The violin was a horse of a different colour, took a lot of see-sawing to lure any lovely tunes out of it, but as time went on it too responded beautifully" (E. Goranson). There was also an Estey organ were many happy hours were spent by many of them. Edna also tells us about her first movie, a Charlie Chaplin film, silent of course, with written explanations between episodes. Chaplin was chasing a white goose up and down the streets of a town, never quite catching it.

At this time, around 1903, it was almost solid Swedish around White Rock according to Edna Goranson, with a sprinkling of German, Irish, Norwegians and Danes, by this time it was well build up with beautiful big houses and barns. This year, Edna tells us, my son Oscar went to Sweden for Christmas to visit his mother, stepfather, sisters and their families, coming back in June 1904, bringing many young folks back with him, like Edna's cousin Carrie (my daughter Anna's oldest daughter) and her cousin David Johnson (my daughter Emma's son), on the pictures to the right.

My secretary wants to add that also Edna's cousins Gideon and Ellen came at that time (my daughter Maria's oldest children), to stay with their uncle Oscar Goranson. They were as young as they look at this picture below, 14 and 15 years old, leaving their parents to try to earn some money to send home.

With love to you readers from my heavenly resting place,

Goran Danielsson.